


I can't be your Superman [or Lex Luthor]

by orphan_account



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crime Fighting, Gen, Love/Hate, Mostly Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-02-18 09:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2342963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lalna and Sjin are like Tony Starks, but not really good Tony Starks. They might have destroyed a city. And Rythian isn’t too happy about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LanternWisp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanternWisp/gifts).



> I guess this didn't end up as shippy as I intended. Oh well.

_“Don’t you remember what you did in that city?”_

_“Everything was burning and you two just kept destroying everything in sight.”_

_“There were people. Hundreds and thousands of people. They’re all dead because of you.”_

_“You do realize your actions have consequences.”_

~~~~

The dull pulse of rockets and the cool embrace of the metal suit around his body was a soothing feeling for Lalna from the moment he just put on the suit to the moment when he was soaring a thousand feet in the air above the highest skyscrapers of the city. Now, however, it was background music as he waited above the roof of the city hall. Several blocks away, he could see emergency vehicles making their way towards a faintly smoking building. No doubt one of the other resident “superheroes” would be on the scene soon, aiding the fight to save lives with their unnatural gifts and skills.

On another night, in another lifetime, Lalna might have been heading there personally. But as he was now, the thought never crossed his mind. It was certainly unfortunate that some kind of fire was destroying property and threatening lives, but it was honestly none of his business. In fact, he might get in the way of the trained rescue workers, and that would just cause more confusion.

But Lalna had a different reason for remaining away from the scene.

His new dance partner should be showing up soon. It would be rude to give him such a lovely invitation and then not show up for the date at all.

After all the trouble of making a force field powerful enough to contain Rythian long enough to have a “talk,” Lalna was hoping to see quite a bit of fiery spirit out of the superhuman. Enough to keep him entertained for quite a while. After what happened to the last city, Sjin had backed away from an arms race and returned to simple teasing prank calls. Lalna had occupied himself with rebuilding his arsenal, imagining a new opponent coming after him and imagining himself using each weapon against that person.

And now Rythian, the superhuman who had previously been a neutral party, imagined himself as some champion of the people who were unfortunately killed in the destruction Sjin had brought to the city that was now no more. Inside the force field, Rythian blasted the unbreakable walls with his weird powers so much that it actually shook, as his body almost vibrated with rage. It seemed that Lalna got his new plaything. A dangerous, unstable plaything with a ridiculous hero complex and new powers of destruction that rivaled Lalna's own masterful creations, but an antagonist nonetheless.

Lalna watched the skies as the hands of the clock below moved closer to the time he promised to meet Rythian.

_“If you get out of here, I’ll see you at midnight tonight. At the city hall, okay?”_

_“I’ll see you bleeding beneath my feet.”_

Rythian probably figured out the force field soon after Lalna left. Despite what Sjin said about the superhuman’s apparent confusion and reluctance to use machinery and advanced technology, Lalna knew better.

And the purple flash against the dark horizon confirmed it. Lalna smiled behind his quantum face mask. He fired up the rockets on his legs and rose into the air.

Now, would Rythian decide to monologue again, or would he just—

Rythian shot straight towards Lalna like a purple laser, light from the energy pouring off his body coloring the path behind him.

Lalna flew upwards out of the way and Rythian slowed down, twisting around to face Lalna again.

“What, you don’t want to talk this time?”

Rythian clenched his fists tighter and flew towards Lalna. “What the fucking hell would I have to talk about _now,_ Lalna?”

Lalna shrugged, dancing nimbly out of Rythian’s reach. “Well, I don’t know. I take it you didn’t like being a lovely beach decoration back there.”

Rythian stopped in midair, holding both hands out. Purple light intensified in each of his palms and Lalna propelled himself what he considered to be a reasonable distance away. The energy blasted towards him a split second later and sped after Lalna like twin missiles. Rythian flew after them, somehow guiding them to continue seeking after Lalna.

Feeling a small bit of panic, Lalna wondered if the beams would stop when they hit something, even if the something wasn’t him. He guided himself down, weaving a path through the pillars of the city hall and then into a parking garage nearby.

Lalna heard several explosions behind him and looked over his shoulder to see the purple energy had blown a gaping hole in the parking garage, but they were still coming after him, albeit as smaller beams. Meanwhile Rythian was also catching up on Lalna.

As he raced through the parking garage, putting as many obstacles between himself and the mad superhuman, Lalna prepped a number of defenses: his reactor-powered arm cannons, and the many compact rockets hidden in various spots along his back. He manually turned a ring around each of his wrists, glancing back constantly to make sure Rythian was still a safe distance behind him.

“Class F rockets sixteen through twenty four, and all class S projectiles, fire on my mark.” Lalna instructed his suit. His display soon informed him that everything was ready.

The top of the parking garage was approaching fast. Lalna soared up into the sky and the purple energy beams followed mere yards behind him. Lalna gave the rockets in his legs one extra boost and turned in a tight arc to fly behind one of the city’s largest office buildings.

“Mark.”

The rockets shot out, impacting not even a second afterwards as they impacted with Rythian’s weird power blasts at the corner of the building. Lalna stopped, turned around, and hovered above another building. He watched as Rythian apparently flew straight into the explosions and grinned in excitement. The superhuman, dazed temporarily from the blast, paused to catch his senses while leaning against the ruined building.

He raised the volume on his external speakers. “Sorry about that, Rythian,” he taunted. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

Rythian was back in the air in a few short seconds, burning purple again. “You bastard,” he hissed. “Are you trying to destroy this city too?”

Lalna raised his arms innocently. “You’re helping. It’s not really my fault.”

The damage was mostly because of Rythian, after all. Lalna was acting in self defense. Lalna was being rational, making reasonable decisions to avoid getting hurt. Meanwhile, Rythian…

Lalna hovered in the air and wondered how much Rythian was really thinking right now. Maybe he wasn’t thinking at all. That might result in something interesting.

Rythian pulsed with his purple energy again, but he didn’t shoot anything at Lalna. Instead he flew headlong towards him, his entire being brimming with superhuman light. Lalna raised his right arm and fired a concentrated blast of blue arc reactor energy straight at Rythian, hitting him in the chest and forcing him back, against the building directly adjacent to the one that was slightly smoldering from the energy blasts and rockets.

No, it looked like maybe Lalna had miscalculated the energy behind that blast. Rythian broke straight into the building.

“Oops,” Lalna chuckled. He flew towards the rather large hole Rythian left behind him as he had plowed through the metal and concrete and glass. “You still alive?”

A wide purple beam fired from a moving pile of rubble within the darkened building missed Lalna’s head by inches.

Lalna twitched away from the beam, then aimed his right hand at the rubble. Another blast of his reactors energy hit Rythian as the superhuman began to rise, pushing him through the remainder of the building and across to the other side.

Lalna followed after, keeping ready to hit Rythian again and again to prevent him from making any more of that purple—

But Rythian was glowing purple again as he fell from the hole in the building, spiraling around in midair to fly back, possibly to try to reach Lalna before he hit him again with the arm cannon.

The blast hit Rythian point blank, and Lalna watched for a split millisecond as Rythian’s body took in the shockwave and his face twisted in pain. The superhuman’s face—or as much as Lalna could see of it with that mask in the way—was absolutely filled with hatred. Lalna felt a hot rush of excitement as he knew that _he_ was the cause of that. So much power and energy and dedication and hate was focused on him.

This was a better feeling than messing around in the skies above the old city with Sjin.

This felt like power.

Lalna laughed and flew after Rythian, who was now crashing into the street, plowing aside half a dozen cars. Screeches from people and vehicles surrounded him as he caught up with Rythian, who was rising from his place of impact, pulsing purple again. Rythian drove forwards to collide fiercely with Lalna, sending electric-like waves of pain throughout his body, past the suit’s defenses. Lalna registered that Rythian was trying to claw at his suit’s faceplate and snickered again.

“Alright, Rythian. Let’s dance.”

He seized hold of Rythian’s wrists as the superhuman’s hands closed around his suit’s throat. Simultaneously he fired his propulsion rockets and lightly pulsed his palm lasers. The brief flinch of pain from Rythian, so close to him now, was worth it as the pain intensified around his body.

“You—”

Lalna took Rythian high into the sky, then made a smooth arch as he flipped over and brought them back to the ground. He felt the satisfying crunch as something in Rythian’s body broke at the impact. Lalna got up as quickly as he could and took a few steps away, surveying the damage and observing where he had ended up.

Oh. How ironic. They were in front of Sips Co.’s latest PR project, a clean energy power plant that would replace the unpopular nonrenewable energy plants on the edge of the city and bring the people closer to a bright and happy future. That was roughly how Sips had explained the thing anyway.

Rythian didn’t look good. He was shaking in the small crater Lalna had left him in, possibly unable to move. Lalna slowly, hesitantly, drew nearer.

The superhuman was bleeding from several locations on his body. He was breathing laboriously, glaring at Rythian, and clawing at the broken asphalt around him with his left hand.

Lalna smirked. “Looks like you’re the one bleeding beneath me, Rythian.”

Rythian narrowed his eyes and stopped moving. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Oh, that’s not nice.” Lalna sighed. “Don’t you remember back when we were friends?”

“You murdered thousands of innocent people for your sick game with Sjin,” Rythian spat, glowing faintly.

Lalna sighed. “That’s all in the past.”

“Don’t you give me those excuses again, you sick bastard.” Rythian said darkly. He clenched his left hand into a fist and pressed it against his chest.

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m going to destroy you if it kills me.”

Lalna laughed. Rythian pulsed with his energy again. Spiderweb lines of brighter purple light formed across half of his body and he climbed out of the crater. Lalna rose into the air again. Rythian followed, preparing his energy blasts.

They were going to destroy this city.

Lalna hoped that, in the end, neither of them would die.

Or that both of them would die, together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I write another chapter for this? I'm working on five other fics right now, plus original stuff. I wrote this in such a short time. It's probably terrible. I wrote the first part in _August_ for heaven's sake!

The purple energy flared in a haphazard pattern across Rythian’s body like it was mending cracks rather than highlighting the veins of power. His superpowers were taxing as ever, and he felt like he was sacrificing his humanity to gain access to more of it.

Still, he remembered standing with his students at the university, watching the city beyond the window in horror. The skies turning black from the smoke pouring from the destruction caused by the two _overgrown children_ with the most dangerous weapons in existence. He remembered the hopelessness shared by everyone in that classroom when they all realized it was only a matter of time before the fires and explosions traveled their way.

Rythian remembered the radiation from the explosives and the spilled chemicals in his classroom cooking him and his students alive while the rest of the school roasted alive.

And Lalna had the fucking nerve to think that this was a game. He _dared_ to mock Rythian’s desire for vengeance. He _dared_ to pretend that he wasn’t the one at fault when Rythian had seen his former friend aim straight at the university and fire one of those instruments of genocide.

It was all a game to goddamn Lalna. Well, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be a game to Rythian. He had received this power and he didn’t care if he lost his mind to it. If he could just kill Lalna, it would be more than worth it.

He could finally face the ghosts of his students wailing in agony as they were trapped in the memory of suffering a slow and dreadful death.

Rythian’s arm was broken. Several of his ribs were cracked and he was sure that he had suffered at least a minor head injury that should be leaving brain damage. But the cool purple energy was filling the gaps, holding the bones and muscle tissue and veins and nerves together. If he just surrendered his body to it, he could continue to use his powers to tear away at that damn powersuit until he could properly strangle Lalna to death.

Or tear his heart out, perhaps. It didn’t matter anymore, as long as the bastard died and knew exactly what he was dying for. 

Lalna still had the balls to laugh in front of him, even now. The rage wouldn’t leave Rythian, but his tactics so far weren’t working. Lalna was faster than him and he had an arsenal of deadly weapons hidden in the suit that protected him from all of Rythian’s attacks.

Rythian let the power fill his body until he couldn’t feel the pain from the broken bones anymore. Tentatively, he clenched the hand that was supposed to be broken. It moved easily. 

He glared at Lalna. The asshole’s face was covered by the mask, but Rythian just knew that the man was smirking at him. 

“Thousands of people,” Rythian reminded Lalna, lacing each word with all of his hatred.

Lalna shrugged. “Are we going to keep talking about that all night?”

Rythian fought to take a steadying breath and focused his mind on the ground around him, around Lalna. He felt his power shoot down through his legs, into the ground like roots. They gradually arced back upwards…

And the thick ropes of Rythian’s power burst out of the asphalt beneath Lalna’s feet. The inventor jumped and looked downwards.

Mistake.

The ropes clasped around Lalna tightly and ripped at the seams in his suit. Two of them managed to tear the helmet off his face and crush it.

“Fucking _bitch_ ,” Lalna spat through gritted teeth. Small threads from the purple ropes were digging into his skin, burying themselves under the cracks in his armored powersuit.

Rythian didn’t dare move and break the flow of power, but he allowed himself a short laugh.

“Does it hurt, Lalna?” Rythian shouted. He felt a stronger wave of the powerful energy ripple down through the ground and Lalna shuddered and convulsed when it hit his body. “I’ll make it a thousand times worse, just for you!”

Lalna managed a pained smile. “Nice to know you’d do that for me. M-mark.”

A pair of rockets fired out from somewhere on Lalna’s suit and headed straight for Rythian. 

Rythian immediately dropped low to avoid being hit by those cursed things another time. The hold of Lalna was broken, however. 

_Damn it._

Rythian felt the energy flood his body again and took to the air. He flew backwards, into the sea of wind turbines and oddly designed solar panels. The turbines creaked and moaned in the wind, but Rythian could only hear the energy buzzing and the blood pumping in his ears as he flew backwards to avoid the homing missiles that were closing in on him.

He turned around and maneuvered in a convoluted pattern through the wind turbines, hoping the missiles would hit one of those and not himself.

Or…

Rythian spared a quick glance backwards. Lalna was following, although at a leisurely pace. He was probably enjoying this in that sick mind of his, but at least his precious powersuit was ruined. He was carrying the helmet. Must be important to the functioning of the suit. 

He might have time.

Rythian stopped moving for a split second and let the missiles come closer. Then he flew straight up into the sky, halted just long enough to change direction, and flew directly at Lalna.

Lalna dropped the helmet and brought up his arms, no doubt to fire another of those burning blasts at Rythian, but thankfully, the suit shorted out. Lalna looked at the gloves of the suit. Rythian hoped the damn murderer was panicking. He collided into Lalna and wrapped his hands around his neck again.

The two were rocketing backwards, but it didn’t feel nearly as fast as before. Rythian was pleased.

“Are you mad?” Lalna gasped. “If you don’t let me go, we might both die!”

“I don’t give a shit,” Rythian said with all the hate he could muster. He pulled Lalna close to his face. He wanted to see the exact moment that Lalna knew he had lost.

The rockets gave out and the pair fell downwards. Lalna flailed in the air and Rythian offered no help, except to move his grip to Lalna’s shoulders. He couldn’t have Lalna breaking his neck on impact. That would be too easy a death for the man who had destroyed a city, ran away from his crimes, and laughed it off a day later.

They smashed into a large solar panel and Lalna twitched. A split second later, Rythian understood why he had done that. A significant electrical current had been disrupted by the carnage they had just inflicted on the solar panel. Rythian heard a slightly louder hum from Lalna’s ruined suit. 

Lalna’s eyes lit up. Rythian slapped both of his hands around Lalna’s neck again and squeezed.

“Don’t you dare--”

But Lalna was instead raising an arm and aiming behind Rythian. The cannon hummed and fired, far too close to Rythian’s ear. Barely a second later, there was a deafening explosion behind Rythian. Wind turbines and solar panels were destroyed and, from the light, fires started in the ruins of the energy farm.

Lalna dropped his arm and clawed weakly at Rythian’s hands.

“Ryth--” he choked. 

Rythian eased up just enough to let the murderer bastard speak. “What,” he snapped. 

“Sorry--”

Rythian barely realized he was choking Lalna again. His vision was purple and all he could see was Lalna’s stupid face, not nearly as broken or bleeding as he had hoped. 

“How dare you,” Rythian hissed. “You don’t get to say that. Not after you laughed in my face back at the beach. Not after what you did, tonight, and that night you murdered everyone.”

This man--this _scumbag_ of a man--would never be sorry. He was already cracking another smile, even amidst his pitiful gargling choking noises.

“So--” Lalna forced out. He managed to pull away one of Rythian’s hands. “You’re… just... g--kill me?”

“I thought you already realized that was my intention.”

The purple was clouding Rythian’s view of Lalna now. Just at the fringes of his consciousness, he could hear the sobs and screams of his dying students. 

Lalna deserved this. 

Rythian squeezed harder. The purple light blotted out Lalna’s face. A wind turbine fell to the ground behind him.

Faintly, ever so faintly, Rythian felt hands peeling his fingers away from Lalna’s throat.

And another voice that he hated almost as much as Lalna was talking.

Of course Sjin was still pretending to be a hero.


End file.
